ISLAMABAD - Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power Friday unanimously passed the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Bill-2011, which is aimed at promoting private investment in this sector and ensuring proper implementation of the power policies.
The bill will safeguard the investments already made in the power sector and provide one window facility to private investors, transforming the power sector into a competitive power market in the country.
Secretary Water and Power Imtiaz Hussain Qazi read the bill, which the committee unanimously passed, considering it important to increase power generation in the country.
The committee meeting, chaired by Mir Haji Lashkari Raisani, was also attended by Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Maula Bukash Chandio, Senators Mohammad Zahid Khan and Naeem Hussain Chattha.
Later, Minister for Water and Power during an informal chat with media said that a meeting of power distribution companies has been convened in next week to review progress on recovery from defaulters.
Commenting on the water dispute with India, he said national interests would be protected at all cost, adding that former Indus Water Commissioner Jamat Ali Shah, who allegedly helped and facilitated India in building a hydropower project on Pakistan’s Indus River and is abroad nowadays, would return soon.